Old Greek Stories
NEW YORK: CINCINNATI: CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY PREFACE. Perhaps no other stories have ever been told so often or listened to with so much pleasure as the classic tales of ancient Greece. For many ages they have been a source of delight to young people and old, to the ignorant and the learned, to all who love to hear about and contemplate things mysterious, beautiful, and grand. They have become so incorporated into our language and thought, and so interwoven with our literature, that we could not do away with them now if we would. They are a portion of our heritage from the distant past, and they form perhaps as important a part of our intellectual life as they did of that of the people among whom they originated. That many of these tales should be read by children at an early age no intelligent person will deny. Sufficient reason for this is to be found
father. To her joy, she discovers that she can relieve him from the
task of reciting the seven Penitential Psalms which had been imposed
as a Penance:--
"I began to do this a while ago," she writes, "and it gives me much
pleasure. First, because I am persuaded that prayer in obedience to
Holy Church must be efficacious; secondly, in order to save you the
trouble of remembering it. If I had been able to do more, most
willingly would I have entered a straiter prison than the one I live
in now, if by so doing I could have set you at liberty."
[PLATE: CREST OF GALILEO'S FAMILY.]
Sister Maria Celeste was gradually failing in health, but the great
privilege was accorded to her of being able once again to embrace her
beloved lord and master. Galileo had, in fact, been permitted to
return to his old home; but on the very day when he heard of his
daughter's death came the final decree directing him to remain in his
own house in perpetual solitude.
Amid the advancing infirmities of age, the isolation from friends,
and the loss of his daughter, Galileo once again sought consolation
in hard work. He commenced his famous dialogue on Motion. Gradually,
however, his sight began to fail, and blindness was at last added to
his other troubles. On January 2nd, 1638, he writes to Diodati:--
NEW YORK: CINCINNATI: CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY PREFACE. Perhaps no other stories have ever been told so often or listened to with so much pleasure as the classic tales of ancient Greece. For many ages they have been a source of delight to young people and old, to the ignorant and the learned, to all who love to hear about and contemplate things mysterious, beautiful, and grand. They have become so incorporated into our language and thought, and so interwoven with our literature, that we could not do away with them now if we would. They are a portion of our heritage from the distant past, and they form perhaps as important a part of our intellectual life as they did of that of the people among whom they originated. That many of these tales should be read by children at an early age no intelligent person will deny. Sufficient reason for this is to be found